A bill seeking to establish a Police Pension Board passed second reading at the Senate on Thursday.
Sponsor of the bill, Senator Binos Dauda Yaroe representing Adamawa South, in his lead debate said men and officers of the Nigeria Police Force have been disadvantaged in payment of their pensions under the contributory pension scheme, managed by the Pension Commission, PENCOM.
He explained the importance of making the Police’s pension arrangement to be at par with other frontline security agencies like the Army, Navy, Air Force, Department of State Security Service, DSS, Defence Intelligence Agency, DIA and the National Intelligence Agency, NIA.
The lawmaker said: “A cursory look at the difference between the pension and gratuity benefits of the Nigeria Police and her counterpart in the Military shows that the benefit of a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, under the current pension scheme is N2.5million, while the equivalents of DSP in the Army, Captain, Navy Lieutenant, Air Force, Flight Lieutenant, and DSS Captain, are paid N12.8million.”
He contended that the Nigerian Police Force is receiving equivalent of 19.5 per cent pension benefit of their colleagues in the sister agencies, adding that the proposed establishment of the Board would bridge gaps and encourage Police retirees who did so much to keep the nation in unity.
“The inclusion and continuous stay of the NPF in PENCOM has placed them on the wrong end of post service emolument life despite being saddled with the responsibility of not only protecting the lives and property of the citizenry but also detecting, preventing and investigating crimes as well as prosecuting offences,” he said.
“The bill is very important. The Police is our number one law enforcement entity and so, we need to do all that is required to take care of them in respect of their pension.
“They lay down their lives while we are asleep; they are awake to protect us and our properties, so we need to do our best in terms of their pension.”
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